


Nothing is as it seems

by alegriavida



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2015-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 13:23:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1819987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alegriavida/pseuds/alegriavida
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah finds out once again that nothing is what it seems in the labyrinth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thoughts

Everything seemed so surreal in the hours after Sarah got home.

She didn't remember much about the impromptu party that had occurred in her bedroom after she solved the labyrinth. She was just so relieved that everything was back as it should be. When everyone went back through the mirror, she was finally left alone with her thoughts. And oh, what strange thoughts they were. She kept running everything through her mind over and over; the wish, her new friends, the labyrinth…him.

Sarah didn't want to think about him, but his face had left a burning imprint on her mind. She opened her window and leaned on the sill, letting the night breeze hit her face.

Jareth, the Goblin King, was the villain in her story; the bad guy. Wasn't he? He had tried so hard to make her fail, including almost killing her with…what had Hoggle called them…the cleaners? If that stone gate hadn't fallen right at that moment, she would have died. But…maybe he was behind that. He seemed to be in control of things in his labyrinth. Maybe he had made it look like he was the villain, because that was how she'd seen him. "You cowered before me; I was frightening." Sarah had read enough faerie-tales to know that more often than not, Fae granted wishes--but not in any way you would expect. They were tricksters. Maybe he really HAD just been giving her what she expected of him.

She kept repeating his last offer silently to herself. She hadn't really processed what he was saying at the time; she'd been too preoccupied with her task, with being the hero and doing the right thing. And she HAD done the right thing. She had saved her baby brother. But now she thought back to his words.

"Fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave." It sounded ridiculous at first, but when she really thought about it, she realized it wasn't very far from something she'd heard people vow to each other many times. A mutual promise to love, cherish and obey. Was that what he meant? She was only 15! But…maybe age didn't mean the same thing to creatures like him. After all, younger girls than her were getting married in the human world for thousands of years in the past. And judging from his castle…and his clothing, the culture in the Underground was more like Aboveground's middle ages than anything else. But still..she wasn't ready for marriage. She didn't even really know Jareth. God, she hadn't even finished high school!

Sarah shook her head to clear her thoughts. This was ridiculous. She would probably never see him again. She didn't even know if any of it was real. She thought it was, but now that she was back at home and there was no sign of magic anywhere, she wasn't sure. Was it all just an elaborate dream that her over-active mind had made up? Maybe, but then why was she so exhausted?

She needed to get some rest or she would drive herself insane thinking all night. She got into bed and climbed under the covers, wrapping them tightly around her for comfort. She thought she would have to struggle to find sleep, but she was wrong. She fell into a deep slumber just moments after she settled in and closed her eyes.

If she had known the truth, she would never have been able to fall asleep.


	2. The junkyard

Sarah realized something was wrong as soon as her sleep began to fade away. Rather than her comfortable soft bed, she felt something hard and oddly shaped beneath her, and the air smelled like a mixture of rotting meat and musty attic. She couldn't hear a thing, but when she felt a gentle breeze flutter over her, she opened her eyes. She woke up in the junkyard. She was back in the labyrinth. With wide eyes, Sarah looked around her. No! This wasn't happening! How could she be back here? She had already solved the labyrinth! She started to panic as she tried to climb off the pile of forgotten relics she was lying on but realized something wasn't right; something besides the fact that she just woke up in a place she never wanted to see again.

She realized with horror that she wasn't just lying on a pile of junk. She was attached to it…no. It was part of her. She scraped at a small doll on her arm, trying to get it to come off, but the fabric of the toy was fused with her skin. Bile rose in her throat, and her heart raced as she tried to keep the growing panic at bay. She screamed as she finally ripped the doll off of her arm like a bandaid and her skin came away with it, leaving a bloody red gash.

Sarah began to cry. Hot tears ran down her cheeks as she tried to move off the pile to no avail.

"Help! Please, someone help me!"

But no one came to her rescue. No Hoggle came running. No Sir Didymus rode up on his trusty steed, and no Ludo called on his rocks to help. Even the old woman who carried her possessions on her back would have been a welcome sight, but Sarah was alone. She was alone and terrified, because she was going to have to get out of this on her own. She had to calm down.

"That's enough crying, Sarah," She said out loud, sniffling as she tried to put an end to her sobbing.

Surely there was a way out of this; there had always been a way out of things before. She looked around her, trying to find some way to get away from this mess. There was so much junk attached to her, but she thought if she could at least turn over partly, she could stand.

She tried to twist around and pull herself over. It hurt. It felt like her limbs were being pulled from her body, and she wanted to give up and lie in a heap until someone finally found her. But she couldn't give up. She screamed once again with the effort of turning herself over, but it worked. The junk attached to her body came with her, and bore down on her back, but with a tremendous effort, she was finally able to stand. 

She knew she wouldn't be able to go far with all the things holding her down, but she had to get out of this place. The castle wasn't far. She could make it. She had to. Maybe Jareth would take pity on her and stop the pain.

With all her strength, she began to walk. All the junk--the books, dolls, toys, and games--hung off of her, weighing on her shoulders like an oversized rucksack filled with bricks. Sarah moved slowly along the gray dirty path between piles of broken and forgotten things. The heavy pile of junk bore down on her so that she could barely walk. Sarah had to force herself to put one foot in front of the other, but she was making it. She was making some sort of progress…until she fell. Something in the path caused her to trip, and she came tumbling down with all the junk falling on top of her back. She lay in the dirt for a while, unable to build up the energy to move. When she finally talked herself into trying again, it was a tremendous effort just to lift herself onto her knees. But Sarah wasn't one to give up. She hadn't given up on Toby, and she wouldn't give up on herself. She pushed herself onto her feet and began to walk again.

She fell to her knees several times again, unable to continue holding the weight, but she found she could lean against the other piles of junk and still get up after a few minutes. Eventually she made it to the end of the junkyard. 

Sweat poured down her face, and she could barely breathe, but she could see the goblin city up ahead. She smiled with relief and began to walk again…until her way was barred. A tall creature, something far more sinister than the goblins and creatures she'd seen in the labyrinth so far, stepped from behind a gnarled tree. She gasped and tried to back away but tripped over her own feet and fell back onto the ground.

"You may not leave. The King is not ready for you yet," The creature's spoke with a low guttural voice that frightened Sarah even more.

It must have been at least six feet tall and wore a cloak of shadowy material over its stout body. The beady eyes set high in its long face stared at her with disdain, as if daring her to try to get past it.

"P-please, I need h-help," Sarah's voice was tiny and afraid, but she didn't know what to do. The creature continued to watch her with hate etched on its face.

"You may not leave. Go back now, and I will not rip you to shreds."

Sarah gasped again and tried to stand, but she had fallen onto her back and couldn't. She would have to turn over again, but she didn't want to take her eyes off this creature, for fear it might do something horrible to her if she wasn't watching it. There was nothing she could do. She reached behind her, feeling for a piece of the junk attached to her. She felt something small, a box, and tugged hard to pull it off her back. Once again, it felt as though the object was a part of her, and her skin came away with the box. She screamed in pain, and the dark creature before her started to laugh.

"It is not time yet," it growled, laughing harder when she started sobbing.

It was too much for her. The creature, the pain, the weight of every item attached to her body, was more than she could bear, and she began to scream. She closed her eyes and filled the air with a piercing cry of fear and pain.

Suddenly, she felt the weight attached to her disappear, and she sat up in bed with a deep gasp. A nightmare. It was only a nightmare. Even so, Sarah couldn't get back to sleep that night, and when the sun peeked over the horizon a few hours later, it found Sarah sitting at her window, watching the birds wake up and trying to get the dream off her mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Sarah dreamed of the junkyard every night from then on. In every dream, she woke up on her back, covered in junk that had become part of her body. But she realized something after a few weeks of the dream. All of the things that fell away from her were still gone when she dreamed again.

It was strange that the items attached to her didn't change in her dream. In fact it wasn't like any dream she'd ever had before. If she had been asked, she wouldn't be able to explain why, but the dream felt different.

That terrifying creature was always there too, always guarding the exit. She had taken to trying to find different ways out, but no matter what exit she found, the creature blocked her way. She thought it was the same creature, at least. It looked the same, and it always said the same thing.   
"You may not leave."

The thing never became less terrifying either. 

In her dreams, she discovered that she could explore the vast land of junk as much as she wanted, as long as she didn't try to leave. She didn't much at first; all the stuff was too heavy for her to bear very far without having to rest. But as the weeks went by, and the junk slowly fell away, she found she could move much easier. By the end of the second month of this dream, there was only one layer of junk attached to her, and she could move with relative ease. 

She never saw another person or living creature other than the monster who held her prisoner in this place. And she soon realized that every single piece of tattered and dirty junk strewn about was something she had once either owned or coveted; everything from the Raggedy Anne doll she had when she was little to the first note she had written to a friend in school.

The dark dream took its toll on her in her waking hours. She never felt like she had gotten any rest. Her grades were slipping, and she had developed dark circles under her eyes. Karen, her stepmother, had taken her to a doctor, who prescribed sleeping pills, but nothing was working. 

The dream, though it was the same thing every night, never ceased to terrify her. She'd found herself shaken awake many nights by her parents who had come running to her room when they heard her screaming in her sleep. Karen had started talking about setting up an appointment with a psychiatrist and Sarah was wondering if maybe it wasn't a bad idea. Maybe she was going crazy. 

She didn't understand why this was happening to her. She had won. She had solved the labyrinth, and she had won. 

"You have no power over me," she'd found herself repeating the words like a prayer every night before she went to bed, but she always woke up in the junkyard as soon as she fell asleep in her bedroom.

But through it all, Sarah never lost hope. She was strong, and she knew she could overcome this. She had tried everything else and apart from resigning herself to believing she really was insane, it was time to think outside the box. 

If her adventures in the labyrinth really had happened, it wasn't too much of a leap to assume that these nightmares were caused by magic. And if it was some sort of curse, maybe the way out of it was to get out of the junk yard. She would have to face that creature and find a way to escape it. 

But how was Sarah going to get past the dark creature that always seemed to know where she was? She sat in her math class and tried to think of something. Would she be able to outrun the thing? She shivered just thinking about the idea of the monster catching up to her if she even got past it. And she didn't want to imagine what it might do if it did catch her.

She didn't know if the dream was really an enchantment, but she didn't want to take any chances by assuming it wasn't. It was possible if she died in her dream, she would die in real life. No, if she had learned anything from the Labyrinth, she had learned not to take anything for granted.

And she wouldn't; especially when it came to her instinct. And her instinct told her that she needed to get to the castle. Sarah didn't know why. If Jareth had done this to her, the castle would be the last place she should go. But it was drawing her to it like a moth to a flame, and she knew that everything was backward in the Labyrinth. So if the castle is the last place she should go normally, she knew she had to go there.

Sarah was thinking so much about her predicament that she didn't realize she was falling asleep, and suddenly she found herself back in the junkyard.  
"Damn." She knew she was asleep--she knew she would get in trouble with her math teacher if she didn't wake up. But she couldn't. It wasn't that she couldn't bring herself to; she could just never wake up when she was dreaming of the Labyrinth until the dream allowed her to.

"Well, there's nothing to do but try." She stood up, the hoards of junk that had been attached to her skin was gone now except for a few things, and walked aimlessly for a while.

Very slowly, she began to make her way to the edge of the junkyard. She kept her eyes open for the creature that guarded the limits, but she didn't see it. Sarah finally reached the end of the junkyard and looked around. Not seeing anything or anyone around, she edged closer to the unseen border. She was going to make it! She was going to get out of…but no. The menacing creature suddenly appeared in front of her, an angry look on its face.

"You may not leave." Sarah wanted nothing more than to run back to the center of the junkyard where this monster never traversed, but she stopped herself. She stood up straight and tried to be brave, though that was the last thing she felt.

"W-why can't I leave? Let me pass." Her voice wavered at first but she felt it growing stronger with every word. The monster stepped closer to her, so close that she could feel its warm breath on her face.

"You may not leave."

She stood still and closed her eyes, silently building up the courage to do what she suddenly knew she had to do. When she opened her eyes, there was a determination in them that caught the creature off guard. Sarah took that opportunity to run. She sidestepped the monster blocking her path and ran as fast as she could toward the castle, not daring to look back to see if it was following her.

Everything seemed to go so quickly. There were no goblins in sight in the Goblin City, no chickens or cats or any other living creature for that matter. The hut-like houses that filled the goblin city loomed over her as she ran past. Everything seemed so sinister when it was empty. But she didn't have time to think about that. The castle loomed ahead of her, and only when she had made it to the top of the steps and stood at the entrance did she look behind her. There was no one. The creature that guarded the junkyard had not followed her. Sarah took a moment to catch her breath and compose herself before heaving open the large doors to the castle and walking inside.

She only hoped the castle wouldn't be completely abandoned as well.


	4. The Castle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jareth finally makes an appearance! I can hear you all saying 'finally!' And I promise there'll be much more of him from now on.

Sarah heaved open the castle doors and walked inside. It was so quiet, her ears were ringing. The last time she had been there the castle had been abandoned, too. But the goblin city hadn't been. She decided she would go to the throne room first to try to find him. It seemed to make the most sense, though nothing in this place really made much sense at all. She quietly made her way down the corridor toward the throne room, afraid to add any noise to the piercing silence. What if there was no one here? What if she couldn't find him? What would she do? Would she be in the junkyard again the next time she fell asleep? She shook her head, dismissing the thought. She would worry about that later.

As soon as she reached the throne room, she knew he wasn't there. In fact, no one was there, but the place was just as messy as the last time she had been here. It was as though everyone had quickly hurried away, leaving behind everything they were doing. There were no goblins to be seen, and there was no goblin king.

Sarah had a thought. What if he was in the same place she'd found him last time? The room that looked like an M.C. Escher painting come to life. But she didn't really remember how to get there. She had just been wandering the castle looking for him when she had come across the room.

It didn't matter. She would search the entire castle if she had to. She just wanted to find someone. She ran across the room and climbed the spiral stairway that led to a second floor full of corridors. The castle halls were almost a labyrinth of their own, winding and sprouting in odd directions. Some of them even led to dead ends, and she was almost certain things changed. Hadn't this hall been a dead end a minute ago? She couldn't be completely sure; everything was so disorienting. But still she kept on, hoping that someone would appear to her. She didn't know how much time she had left before she woke up, and she didn't want to imagine what that creature might do to her if she ended up back in the junkyard.

She tried to keep her growing panic at bay by taking in everything she could about her surroundings. Besides the throne room, Jareth's castle was incredibly well-kempt. Every so often the gray stone walls were broken up by wooden doors or a tapestry. Sarah took a closer look at one of the tapestries. It was embroidered with what looked like a meadow with merry children dancing in a circle. It was beautiful, and she stared, transfixed by the amazing detail.…but the longer she looked, the more uneasy she began to feel about it. There was something not quite right about the looks on the children's faces, and every so often out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw dark shapes moving in the forest beyond the meadow. She shook her head and moved on, ready to be away from the disconcerting piece of cloth.

As Sarah made her way through the seemingly empty castle halls, she began to feel as though someone was watching her. She could never be sure, but it seemed as though every time she turned a corner, something had just darted out of vision. Or was there something behind her? Was it just a draft finding its way into the castle, or was that a breath at the back of her neck? She spun around as quickly as she could, but there was no one there. Sarah's heart was beating like mad, and the feeling of not being alone wouldn't go away.

"Stop it, Sarah," she said to herself. "Just a few minutes ago you were afraid that you were alone, and now you're scared that you might not be." She had always found that talking to herself when she was afraid or anxious gave her comfort, but it wasn't doing the trick this time.

She continued on, opening every unlocked door she came to to see if it led anywhere useful or had anyone hiding in one of the rooms. The doors opened into large bedrooms, sitting rooms, or rooms she had no idea the purpose of, every one decorated differently. The only thing the rooms had in common was their lack of anything living. But the more she searched, the more she felt a presence just out of view.

"Hello? Is anyone there? Please just come out. I won't hurt you." Sarah felt a chill run down her spine as though someone had dumped cold water over her head. Was that laughter she heard, or was her mind just supplying noises where there were none? As she turned the next corner, she saw a familiar archway at the end of the hall.

It was the Escher room. She had finally found it, but she didn't see the Goblin King anywhere. The stairs and doorways leading in every direction possible were just as dizzying as she remembered. She ran down a flight of stairs to a ledge and took a deep breath before looking down, half expecting Jareth to appear below her like he had before. But he wasn't there. No one was there. She didn't know what to do. She hadn't seen one living creature since she left the junkyard. Where the hell was everyone? She backed away from the edge of the platform until her back hit the wall, and she slid down to sit on the floor. She wrapped her arms round her knees and lowered her head, screaming in frustration.

"Where are you!"

"I'm here, if you would care to look." She sucked in a sharp breath at the familiar voice and lifted her head to see the Goblin King sitting on a ledge across from her, one leg dangling from it and the other bent with his arm draped leisurely over his knee. The smirk on his face filled her with unease, and now that she was in his daunting presence, she wanted nothing more than to be out of it. "Well? Nothing to say? You've been searching the castle for me. I assumed you wanted to speak to me."

Sarah swallowed her fear and finally spoke. "I-I want you to stop this dream."

An amused expression came over the Goblin King's face. "Do you now? And what makes you think I would do that for you?"

Sarah stood, feeling uncomfortable sitting in his presence. At least if she was on her feet, she could run if she needed to.

"Please. I don't know how much longer I can take this." She hated that tears had begun to well up in her eyes as she pleaded with him. She hated having to plead with him at all, but she didn't know what else to do. Jareth just canted his head to the side, a smirk playing on his lips. And then he disappeared.


	5. Chapter 5

He had just vanished. She had finally found him only for him to disappear just as quickly as he had come. It was so frustrating, and now she was alone again in this place; all alone with no one to help her. The thought made her shiver. This dream was so much more sinister and frightening than her actual time in the labyrinth had been.

"Tell me why I should end your dream, Sarah." She jumped and spun around at the sound of Jareth's voice right behind her. So he hadn't left her alone after all. After her fear that he'd disappeared again, she should have felt relief, but now that he was so close to her, she only felt fear. She reminded herself that she was going to be ok. He had no power over her; she had made that clear when she got her brother back.

"Come now. You want it to end so badly, you'll need to at least explain to me why you think I would help you."

She didn't know. Her plan had been to come to the castle and beg the Goblin King for help, but why? Why did she think he would help her when she had beaten his Labyrinth and turned down his offer to stay with him.

"I…I don't know. I just need help. I just want this to stop." She had started really crying now. She hated that she was showing such weakness, but she needed to put aside her pride. This dream was making her fall apart; when she was awake, she felt like she hadn't slept in weeks, and when she was dreaming like now, she was in a constant state of fear. She was at the end of her rope. If he wanted to see her beg like he had begged for her to stay, then she would.

"Please…I'll do anything, Jareth. Please just make this nightmare end." The silence that followed her statement felt like an eternity. Something deep within her told her that she had used the wrong words; that Fae couldn't be trusted. But she was too exhausted to listen to it.

"Well now, isn't that a tempting offer. You'll do anything." The king of the goblins had a look of cruel amusement on his face. The look made Sarah want to turn heel and run, but she forced herself to stay put. He put his hands behind his back and leaned forward, a wicked grin on his lips. "Perhaps I will take you up on that. There are many things I desire from you, Sarah." He had moved even closer to her, and she shivered when he ran his gloved fingers down her cheek. He mocked concern. "Don't be frightened, precious. You wanted my help, did you not?"

She kept telling herself it was just a dream. It was only a dream when she had faced the monster in the junkyard. It was only a nightmare, a terribly vivid nightmare, as he leaned forward and fiercely claimed her lips with his. She had never kissed anyone before, but she had dreamed about it. It had never been like this dream. The other kisses she'd dreamed about were pleasant experiences with boys in her class. And she was never so frightened in those dreams. But this…this felt more than wrong. The fierce possessiveness she felt emanating from him as he kissed her made her head swim. Sarah couldn't think straight; she knew it shouldn't feel like this. A kiss shouldn't be so cold and hard. She felt like he was stealing something from her. She wanted to pull away from him, but she was so close to the edge, she had nowhere to go.

When the kiss was finished, she absently lifted her fingers to touch her sore lips, and they came away with blood on them. He grinned at her with malice in his eyes. Sarah hated that look. He had had the same look on his face before he set the cleaners on her. He always looked as though he knew something vital that she didn't. And he probably did.

She was silent for a while before she got the courage to finally speak again. "Will you help me now?" The way his smile grew told her that he wasn't finished with her yet. Was any of this even real? She knew it was a dream, but was the goblin king really enchanting her sleep, or was she really going crazy? It didn't matter. This all felt so much worse than her time in the Labyrinth. At least then she had friends to help her. Now, the only people she had seen were the frightening creature in the junkyard…and the goblin king.

"Perhaps I can help you make sense of things, Sarah," He said.

"How?"

He gave her a curious look, his head tilted to the side. "You seem rather confused. You say you want your dream to end…but it already has."

She looked at him with furrowed brow. "What do you mean? I'm still here."

The smirk on his face sent another chill through her spine. "Yes, you are. You never left."

"What?" She could feel a growing terror, but she pushed it back. She wouldn't let him scare her like this. "I did. I won your game. You have no…"

"…Power over you?" He laughed. "I have every power over you, Sarah Williams. You're an intelligent girl. Think. Surely you've read about Fae and how we lure unsuspecting humans into our realm. You didn't really think you could eat enchanted fruit and still leave, did you?"

Her heart was racing faster with every word he spoke. What did he mean? "The peach? But…I got out of the ballroom. I broke the spell, and I made it to your castle in time."

"Oh, you did? Or did you dream everything after you ate the peach? You thought things would be so simple? That you could tell me I had no power over you and make it so?" He laughed again, mocking her. "Life isn't that easy."

Sarah's heart raced, her mouth going dry in her fear. She wanted to collapse into a heap on the floor. No. No, it couldn't be true. She had solved the Labyrinth. She had made it to the center in time. But had she? If this was a dream, it felt more real than any dream she had ever had before. And when she really thought about it, everything after her time in the ballroom had seemed easier. The battle with the goblins wasn't so horrible, and the words she had spoken…they had been right out of her book. What had made her think they would work? This man had been frightening and manipulative throughout her journey…until she had eaten the peach. Had she really just been dreaming that he might be more than he seemed?

No, she couldn't let herself believe it. She couldn't have lost. She had made it to the center of the Labyrinth, and she had saved…"Toby." Her eyes widened as she remembered her baby brother. Jareth's eyes shone with triumph.

"Toby," he repeated. "Your brother belongs to me, Sarah. And so do you."


	6. Chapter 6

"No." Sarah shook her head, steeling her resolve. "No, this is another one of your tricks. I still have time to save Toby, don't I? I still…"

Jareth was laughing. He was laughing at her. Her face contorted with anger. She wouldn't believe that she had lost, and she wouldn't give up. She had come too far. Sarah looked around the confusing room that reminded her of an Escher drawing; she needed a way out. She had to find Toby. But as she searched, a thought occurred to her. The Escher room.

"If it was all just a dream, then how did I know about this room? And the the junkyard," she asked, triumph gleaming in her eyes. She had caught him. 

Jareth ceased laughing, but the look of infuriating smugness still painted his features. 

"I created your dream, Sarah, just as I created this world," he said. "You saw everything I wanted you to see."

She felt the balloon of hope that had begun building deflate at his words. Of _course_ he had the power to give her dreams of things that were real. It had been a dream. But Sarah could still feel a glimmer of faith; she could still have time. He was stalling her. Without thinking, she turned and ran, making her way up a flight of stairs toward the archway she had come through. Her heart was racing, and she had no idea if he was following her or not, but she had to find Toby. Just a few more feet, and she would be out of this room. She ran around the corner and through the doorway…and came to an abrupt halt when she saw him. He stood, his back leaned against the wall of the corridor, inspecting his black gloves and looking like he had been waiting for her for hours. 

"You should have told me you didn't like that room," he said, glancing up at her. "We can go somewhere else if you'd like." 

Sarah watched as the walls of the hallway began to change, seeming to dissolve and crumble, leaving them finally on only a small platform of land with bits and pieces of the castle's architecture floating about them. It was a familiar scene; identical to the place where she had _thought_ she had defeated him. 

"Perhaps this is more comfortable for you." 

Sarah turned back to Jareth, and caught her breath. He had changed as well, his white feathery ensemble a stark contrast to the black he had been wearing only seconds ago. He was staring at her with such intensity that she thought she might collapse just from his gaze. 

"Is this what you wanted," he asked as he made his way toward her. "Do speak up, Sarah. Recite your pretty lines. Tell me I have no power over you." 

He was mocking her now. She would have been angry if she wasn't so terrified. 

"Please, just let me have my brother back," she asked through her tears. 

Jareth's lips turned up in a sneer. 

"I don't think you quite understand the situation you find yourself in, little girl," He shrugged. "But tell me…what are you willing to do to save your brother?" 

Sarah took a deep breath. "Wh-what do you want me to do?" 

She liked the look he gave her now even less than his grin. He looked…like a lion ready to pounce on its prey. And suddenly the world was changing again. Sarah took in the room he had brought them to. The walls were dark blue with gold trim, and a fireplace stood lit, surrounded by wing-backed chairs. Against one wall stood the biggest sleigh bed she had ever seen. She spun around to find Jareth still staring at her with the same unsettling look, and her cheeks lost all their color. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? She tried to back away as he moved closer to her, but she found that she couldn't move, and she began to panic when he brushed a long gloved finger down her arm. When he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, she couldn't help shivering at the tone of his voice. 

"Are you certain you want to know the answer to that question, Sarah?" 

Her eyes widened, but she quickly hid her fear. She couldn't let him win. 

"If…If I do what you want, will you let Toby go?" 

Jareth chuckled darkly and began walking in a circle around her. She really didn't want to have her back to him, but her feet were still stuck to the floor. She couldn't move. 

"No. I'm afraid you already had your chance to save your brother. I don't give second chances. But I'm pleased to know how compliant you'll be when you really want something."

Sarah's heart sank. All he was doing was toying with her. She wanted to collapse into a ball and wail, but she wouldn't give him that satisfaction. He stopped when he had made his way back around to face her, his amusement evident on his features. 

"Please let him go. I promise you I'll do everything you want if you just let him go." 

"No. _I'm_ holding all the aces, Sarah. Why would I send him back to your world when I can keep him _and_ you? And you will do everything that I want, regardless." 

She shook her head. "I won't. I'll never do what you tell me if you don't let Toby go." 

"Let him go where, exactly," Jareth inquired. 

Sarah looked at him in confusion. 

"Home. Let him go back to my dad and Karen."

He grinned wickedly. 

"There isn't a home for him to go to, Sarah."

"What are you…" 

"29 years," He cut her off. 

"What?" 

" _That_ is how long you've been asleep, Sarah dearest. The human world you know no longer exists." 


End file.
